Ogcocephalidae: BL III A3

Halieutaea spicata Smith,1965 (=coccinea)

Egg diameter in µm	Number of oil globules	Diameter of oil globule in µm	Yolk texture	Perivitelline space	Position of oil globule at hatch	Gut length   at eye- pigment stage	Myomeres
840	1	190	clear	narrow	stern	39% of NL	20

Egg: This egg is easily identified when seen in the late stage of Plates A & B, due to the oval shape and mass of black chromatophores on the latva, yolk and oil globule. The oil globule is clear to light amber. The yolk surface is very granular. The egg has not been seen in earlier stages of development, probably due to the deep water habitat of this species, and a short development time for the egg.

Larva: Upon hatching, the larva is characteristically marked with black chromatophores (Plate C). The 4-day larva already shows signs of the developing rough texture to the cuticle, a dark thorax and big white edged pectorals (E). C: 1 day, D: 2 days, E 4 days.

Only 1 larva hatched from this egg, has been barcoded, and matches the barcode of 6 adult fish collected locally. Confirmation awaits further larval sequences.

This egg has only been seen six times, all in November and December (blue graph). It was not seen in the DHM samples. The Park Rynie linked samples only had 8 eggs, 5 of which were in the inshore samples. See Section 7.3 and Table 1 of the Introductory Notes, for more information on the linked samples.